Island



(No Model.) I

G. H. GORLISS, Decd.

E. A. CORLISS, Administratrix. METHOD OF TREATING THE CYLINDERS 0P STEAM ENGINES.

No. 450,397 Patented Apr: 14,1891.

Wmwa. Evan Z67" wblin'w. dwa law;

UNITE STATES ATENT FFIQEe GEORGE H. CORLISS, DECEASED.

METHOD OF TREATING THE CYLINDERS OF STEAM-ENGINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 450,397, dated April 14, 1891. Application filed December 24, 1889- senn'no. 334,834. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that GEORGE H. CORLISS, deceased, late a citizen of the United States, and aresidentof the city and county of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, (represented by EMILY A. CoRLIss, administratrix,) invented a new and useful Method of Treating Corliss Steam-Engine Cylinders, of which the following is a specification.

The subject of the invention is a novel method of effecting the several operations required to finish the cylinder, by which is meant the entire casting, constituting the cylinder, strictly so called, and the valveboxes and the jacket, with the several nozzles and expansion-ring on the jacket, the bottoms of the exhaust-valve boxes, and the face on the cylinder, by which it is bolted to the bed-casting, which holds it in position,

and the face on the open end of the cylinder, which receives the removable cover, and the main bore of the cylinder or the chamber in which the piston travels. I

The purpose of the invention is to save time and labor and insure that the cylinder is always correctly held for the finishing of each part and to have the several mechanical operations succeed each other in such a manner that each treatment performs an operation which is in itself useful and also prepares the cylinder for the next operation, and thereby insures uniform accuracy for the several operations performed upon the cylinder without requiring skilled labor to line up and readjust the cylinder at each operation. This invention insures absoluteinterchangeability of all cylinders of the same size when treated by this method.

The style of steam-engine known as Corliss has a cylinder of more than usual elaboration. This is especially true of a construction recently introduced, in which a jacket is cast in one with the cylinder. By what is known in the founders artas coring acasting is produced having a hollow interior destined to constitute, when properly bored, the cylindrical chamber in which the steam-tight piston travels, and also having the smaller transverse chambers destined to constitute, when properly bored, the boxes for the several oscillating valves, which work in a manner analogous to stop-cocks, and also having as a jacket an outer shell exterior to the cyl inder. Live steam is admitted to maintain as far as possible a constant temperature of the interior surface. The space between the jacket and the cylinder may remain rough, just as it came from the foundry; but the interior of the main cylinder and the interiors of the several valve boxes require to be smoothly bored, each end of the cylinder and the valve-boxes requires to be faced, drilled, and tapped to receive on the open end of the cylinder atight-fitting head, on the closed end of the cylinder the bed of the engine, and on each end of each valve-box a tight-fitting bonnet. The closed end of the cylinder requires to be bored to receive the piston-rod packing-box, and the open end of the cylinder and both ends of each valve-box require to be counterbored to allow a corresponding portion of the bonnets and head to extend sufficiently into the cylinder and valveboxes to center the bonnets and head, the counter-boring being as much larger than the main bore of the cylinder and valve-box as will allow the cylinder or box to be rebored after it has become worn from time to time without affecting the fit of the bonnet or the head. The counterbore in the open end of v the cylinder also affords means in this method for centering the cylinder for the next operation of finishing the side flanges. The counterbore in the end of the valve-boxes according to this method affords means for centering the cylinder on the appropriate machine to bore the four valve-boxes equidistant from the center of the wrist-lever support and exactly parallel with each other and at right angles to the center line of the cylinder.

In the jacketed cylinder as constructed by Mr. Corliss there is an expansion-section or annular ring extending around the waist or mid-length of the cylinder and forming an in tegral part of the same. Upon this expansion-ring are cast four equal and equidistant flange-nozzles, or cylinder side flanges, as they are termed, which serve several impon tantuses after the cylinder is finished, one of which is to support the center of the Wristlever which operates the valves; another is to support the bracket carrying the cylinderrelief invented and patented by Mr. Corliss, and either of the remaining two are to be used to admit steam through the top or bottom of the jacket on its way to the piston-chamber. \Vhen an engine receives the steam from below, as in some forms of compound, the bottom side flange is utilized for that purpose. Usually the engine receives the steam through thetop side flange. \Vhen the engine is set What is sometimes termed left-handed, the wrist-lever center is on the opposite side from that when itis set right-handed. All four of these side flanges on each cylinder are, according to this methdd, faced, drilled, and tapped, and those two of them which are on the same sides of the cylinder as the ends of the valve-boxes are also eounterbored, and thereby adapted to serve to center the wristlever and also to provide a means for centering the cylinder for finishing the ends of the valve-boxes parallel with each other and at exact right angles to the center line of the cylinder and equidistant from the center of the Wrist-lever support. Furthermore, finishing all of the side flanges alike affords opportunity for setting the cylinders right or left handed, as occasion may require, the side flange not used being stopped by a blank flange. Such is the cylinder to which this invention is intended mainly to apply and such the operations to which it must be subjected.

The original casting is necessarily imperfeet in form; but the several parts which require to be bored or faced are all made with an excess of metal, so that it will allow a sufficient quantity to be removed in the act of finishing. As conducted prior to the invention of this method by Mr. OORLISS the several operations of facing, boring, drilling, tapping, and counterboring each required a careful adjustment of the cylinder, involving a necessity for skilled labor ateach successive setting of the cylinder. By this method all of a number of cylinders for engines of a given size are exactly alike and all of the corresponding parts of each are exact duplicates, the one of the other. Thus the four valveboxes in any given-sized cylinder are of equal bore and equal length and the axes of all the four valves are exactly parallel with each other and at right angles to the center line of cylinder and equidistant from the center of the wrist-lever support. Furthermore, by this method the several mechanical operations performed on the cylinder succeed each other in such manner that each not only performs an operation which is useful in itself, but also prepares the cylinder for the next operation by affording an infallible means for accurately setting the cylinder in the required position relative to the next machine for the accurate performance of the work to be done thereby Without depending upon the manipulative skill of the workman. A certain order of proceeding is essential. After properly cleaning and laying out the proper centers and marks on the cylinder the several steps succeed each other in the following order: The bottoms of the exhaust-valve boxes are planed parallel with the axis of the cylinder and parallel with the axes of the valves, templets are fixed thereon, and said bottoms are drilled and tapped. This is the first operation, and it serves the twofold purpose of preparing the cylinder for the attachment thereto of the cylinder feet or supports and of affording means of securing the cylinder upon proper jigs in the succeeding ma chine, and thereby centering it in said machine.

For the second operation the cylinder is transferred to machine No. 2 and secured and held in the correct line laterally by bolts inserted through the holes drilled in the bottoms of the exhaust-valve boxes, as above mentioned, and holes in jigs or supports of proper height secu red upon the table of the machine. These jigs serve to center the cylinder for the several operations performed on it by machine No. 2. Different heights ofjigs are used on the same machine for different sizes of cylinders. On this machine, which in this method of treating the cylinders we call No. 2, there are two revolving heads, each carrying several tools, which may work simultaneously on the ends of the cylinder. Each head is equipped with provisions for facing the ends of the cylinder by a tool traversed radially on a slowlyvolving face-plate, and for boring and counterboring by feeding a tool in the line of the axis, and is also provided with gearing connected with a shaft in the axial line, driving a drill-spindle held parallel thereto at any distance from the axis and inany part of the circle. This spindle may run fast or slow and may be reversed often and may run rapidly endwise in either direction. By substituting a series of taps for the drill the holes may be screw-threaded and the whole ends of the cylinder will then be complete. This machine faces, eounterbores, drills, and taps the open end of the cylinder, and also faces, bores, drills, and taps the closed or piston-rod packing-box end of the cylinder; and, furthermore, the counterbore madein the open end of the cylinder fits the cylinder for the stepcone jig, which centers it 011 the succeeding machine. Next the cylinder is removed from the jigs in the second machine and is transferred to the third machine, which is equipped with two horizontal journaled jigs, one being what is termed a step-cone, having steps arranged in a series and each step adapted to fit accurately the counterbore in the open end of a corresponding-sized cylinder, and the other being a trunnion adapted to [it a suitable bushing in the bore for the piston-rod packing-box in the closed end of the cylinder. These jigs serve to center the cylinder in this machine, which faces, eounterbores, drills, and taps the cylinder side flanges, the location and uses of which have been previously explained. These operations are perthis third treatment is complete.

der is then transferredinto a fourth machine formed by a revolving head mounted with its axis at right angles to the axis of the cylinder and equipped and operated like the heads described in the previous machine. The head is caused to act upon the several side flanges in succession, the cylinder being revolved upon the jigs a quarter-turn between'each. The counterbore made in the side flanges by this machine serves, in the case of two of the side flanges, to center the wrist-lever and cylinder-relief support, and in the case of the two remaining side flanges to afford an accurate means of centering the cylinder on the next machine. W'hen each side flange has been faced, drilled, tapped, and counterbored,

The cylinand mounted upon two jigs, which are held in line and caused to approach and engage in the counterbores of two opposite side flanges. The cylinder is revolved on this axis at right angles to its principal axis and parallel to the valve-boxes at the true center between them. In this as in all of the several steps of this method of treating the cylinder the correctness of the mounting is absolute. The careful machinist may, if he chooses, verify its correctness after each mounting; but any verification or other skilled labor in setting the cylinder is not, as in ordinary work, essential. The cylinder is certain to be right by reason of the machine in each stage using the previous treatment as a centering means. This machine faces, counterbores, drills, and taps each end of the several valve-boxes, the cylinder being partially revolved on the horizontal jigs to bring the valve-boxes successively between the two revolving heads, like those previously referred to, carrying the appropriate tools and mounted upon axes in line with each other and parallel to the jigs which form the axis on which the cylinder is rotated. Asthe counterbore in the side flanges afforded a reliable means for positively centering the cylinder on this machine, so that theseveral operations performed on the ends of the valve- I boxes, as described, would bear the proper exact relation to the center of the wrist-lever support and to the center 'line of the cylinder, so will the counterbore in the ends of the valveboxes when made according to this method serve as a reliable means for centering the cylinder for the next step. in the method, so that the valve-boxes will each be bored concentric thereto, and therefore exactly equidistant from the center of the wrist lever support.

The several operations of facing, counterboring, drilling, and tapping the ends of the valve-boxes having been completed, the cylinder is ready for the next step in the methodnamely, the boring of the several valve boxes or ports. For this the cylinder is transferred to the next, the fifth machine, and is placed on four jigs, each presenting a circular end engaging the counterbore in the end of the valvebox and resting by its opposite end upon the plane table of the machine, the said jigs also engaging successively with a yoke forming part of the machine, whereby each valve-box in succession is brought and secured under and central with the boring-bar. By this method all the valve-boxes are bored exactly parallel with each other and at right angles with the central line of the cylinder and equidistant from the center of the wristlever support without requiring skill in placing the cylinder.

To complete the cylinder, there now remains to be performed only the boring of the piston-chamber. This necessarily is to-be bored concentrically with the counterbore in the open end of the cylinder, and also with the bore in the closed end made for the pistonrod packing-box. This is accomplished on the next and last machine in this method. The cylinder is transferred to this machine and placed and secured upon jigs for which it was prepared in machines Nos. 1 and 2, and is thereby held at the right heightand in the right position laterally, and is then ready for the boring of the piston-chamber to be performed, and this being done the cylinder is complete in all its parts and ready for immediate use. Hydraulic cranes properly located are used to transfer the cylinder from one machine to the next in the several steps of the method.

Prior to the invention by Mr. CORLISS of this method of treating cylinders by making each step in the method a means for insuring the accurate adjustment and centering of the cylinder in the succeeding stage of the operation, and thereby insuring absolute accuracy of the several operations relatively each to the others and each to the center line of the cylinder, the known methods of finishing cylinders had been crude and primitive, and by reason of the difficulty of maintaining in the several operations to which the cylinder must be submitted the absolute accuracy in the repeated adjustments necessary involved much time and skilled labor and prevented that nice accuracy and absolute uniformity of work necessary to render the cylinder interchangeable.

In the accompanying drawings the several figures together constitute a plan view, on a small scale, showing the arrangement of the several machines, which is esteemed most convenient, and also the range of the several cranes which are employed to facilitate the transfer of the cylinder from each machine to anothcn. As thus arranged, Figure 1 is the plan view of the machine No. 1, which taps and drills the proper face of each exhaust-valve box forthe attachment of the cylinder-feet, and also fits the cylinder for the next machine No. 2, and in part for machine No. 6. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the machine No. 2, which finishes the ends of the cylinder and also fits the cylinderofor machine No. 3, and partially for machine No. 6.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of machine No. 3, which.

finishes the cylinder side flanges and also fits the cylinder for machine No. t. Fig. 4: is a plan View of machine No. l, which finishes the ends of the valve-boxes and fits the cylinder for machine No. 5. Fig. 5 is a plan View of machine No. 5, which bores the valveboxes; and Fig. 6 is a plan view of a group of three sizes of machine No. 6, which bores the piston-chamber in the cylinder.

Similar drawings of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the drawings.

Referring to the drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, A is the fixed frame-work, certain portions being designated, when necessary, by super-numerals, as A, and the cylinder is marked M, certain portions being designated by supernumerals, as M M.

A designates the stationary bed of the first machine; B, the drill-arbor adapted also to carry taps to complete the holes, and O the carriage raised or lowered on an upright post A* to bring the spindle or arbor B to any required height. The cylinder M is supported upon four anti-friction wheels, (not shown,) which are mounted upon a carriage and allow the cylinder to be revolved as required. The carriage is gibbed upon and is moved longitudinally along the bed A by power applied in the ordinary way through bevel-gears to the feed-screws.

M M .are thebottoms of the exhaust-valve boxes in which the holes are drilled and tapped for the attachment of the cylinderfeet, and in which the holes drilled or tapped furnish the means of securing to the cylinder the jigs, (not shown,) by which it is centered and held in the next machine. F is the crane which transfers the cylinder to the second machine.

A is the stationary bed of the second machine, and upon it are mounted the heads G and H, one of which carries tools for facing, counterboring, drilling, and tapping the open end of the cylinder, and the other carries tools for facing, boring, drilling, and tapping the closed or piston-rod packing-box end of the cylinder. In being treated in this machine the cylinder is held on jigs (not shown) bolted to the bottoms of the exhaustyalve boxes prepared therefor in the first machine and also bolted to the bed A In this the second machine the cylinder is faced, drilled, and tapped at both ends. One end is bored to accommodate the piston-rod and packing, (not shown,) and. the other end is counterbored to let in the central inner portion of a corresponding sized head, and this counterbore and the bore made for the piston-rod packing-box further serve as means of holding and centering the cylinder in the third machine. The open end of the cylinder is marked M and the closed or pis ton-rod packing-box end is marked M The crane F serves to transfer the cylinder thus prepared to the third machine.

The third machine has a stationary bed marked A upon which is mounted a head J equipped like the head G, and also two jigs, one being a step-cone K, adapted to fit tightly into the open counterbored end M of the cylinder of all the standard sizes, and the other being a trunnion L, adapted to engage directly or through suitable bushing the smaller hole in the opposite closed end of the cylinder. Suitable means (not shown) are provided for turning the cylinder one-fourth of a revolution and holding it there very firmly while the head J faces, counterbores, drills, and taps the side flanges M". The crane F transfers the cylinder from the third machine to the fourth. The stationary bed of this machine is marked 'A*. There are two heads P Q, each having, like the heads G and J, provisions for facing, counterborin g, drilling, and tapping. Two slides R R carry trunnions or jigs R R, which engage in the counter-bored side flanges M" M and serve to hold and center the cylinder in this machine, and also as the axis upon which the cylinder is revolved or partially revolved to bring the ends of the valve-boxes in succession before the heads P Q. A saddle vertically adjustable upon an upright post T serves to support one portion of the cylinder at a predetermined height and to secure the cylinder firmly for facing, counterboring, drilling, and tapping the ends of one valve-box. Four such settings, each correctly determined by the saddle, hold the cylinder firmly in the four positions required for treating the ends of all the four valve-boxes. The same crane F and another F serve to transfer the cylinder to the bed A of the fifth machine for the boring of the complete chambers for the several valves. The machine is compound adapted to treat a number of cylinders at once; but all are alike, except some are larger than others, and a description of one will suffice for all.

In the previous machine the ends of the valve-boxes were counterbored, and in the present machine jigs snugly fitting said counterbores and bolted to the ends of the valve-boxes are used to center the cylinder for boring the valve-boxes.

V is a semicircular yoke exactly concentric to the axis of the vertical boring-bar X,which bores the valve box. As the cylinder is moved into position the circular base of one of the jigs is received in this semicircular yoke W and compelled to stand with its center exactly coinciding with the center of the boring-bar X, and the boring-tool or the series of tools carried on the latter being revolved and slowly fed down bore the valvebox at one or more operations to the size and cylindrical conditions required and by necessity in the correct line and in the correct position in every respect. This treatment is repeated for each of the four valveboxes in succession. The cranes F and F are now employed to transfer the nearlycompleted cylinder to the sixth machine, the main cylinder-boring machine, which is proholes in said bed, which insures the correct position. Absolute accuracy in the setting of the jigs upon the cylinder and upon the bed in each case is promoted by making one hole in each taper and driving a taper or guide-key therein.

Modifications maybe made by any good mechanic without departing from the principle or sacrificing the advantages of the invention. The boring of the main cylinder 7 or piston-chamber in the machine No. 6 may be done at any stage after the treatment in machine No. 2; but the regular order, as hereln described, is preferable.

The several machines above described are not claimed in this patent, but are made the subgects of other applications for Letters Patent of even date herewith.

\Vhat is claimed as the invention of said GEORGE H. CORLISS, and secured by these Letters Patent, is

1 The improvement in the method of finishing cylinders for Corliss steam-engines,

.consisting in finishing the bottoms of the exhaust-Valve boxes of predetermined height and equipped for being held in predetermined positions laterally, holding the cylinder by such surfaces on a plane table correspondingly drilled, and subjecting the cylinder to operations for finishing the ends, including fac ng and counterboring the open end and facing and boring the closed end, substantially as described. 2 The improvement in the method of finlshing cylinders for Corliss steam-engines, conslsting in centering the cylinder by previously-prepared ends and finishing the side flanges while so centered, substantially as described. 3. The improvement in the method of finishing cylinders for Corliss steam-engines, consisting in holding the cylinder by its prevlously-finished valve-box bottoms at a predetermined height and in a predetermined position laterally upon a plane table and finishing the cylinder ends While so held, and centering the cylinder by the so-finished ends and finishing the side flanges while so centered, substantially as described.

4. The method of finishing Corliss engine cylinders, consisting in centering the cylinder by its previously-finished ends, and while the cylinder is so centered counterboring the side flanges in a line at right angles to the main axis of the cylinder, afterward centering the cylinder on the secondary axis thus determined, and finishing the valve-box ends on axes parallel thereto, substantially as described.

5. The improvement in the method of finishing Corliss-engine cylinders, consisting in centering the cylinder by its side flanges on an axis parallel with the proposed axes of the valve-boxes and at right angles with the main axis of the cylinder, and finishing the ends of the valve-boxes on opposite sides of the cylinder simultaneously or Without shifting While the cylinder is so centered, substantially as described.

6. The improvement in the method of finishing Corliss-engine cylinders, which consists in centering the cylinder by its side flanges on an axis at right angles to the main bore and finishing the valve-box ends and afterward supporting the cylinder by the valve-box ends and boring the valve-box bores while'so held, thereby insuring that the valve-bores shall bear the exact proper relation to each other and to the wrist-lever support and to the center line of the cylinder, substantially as herein specified.

7. The method of finishing Corliss-engine cylinders, consisting in progressively treating the exhaust-valve bottoms, cylinder ends, side flanges, valve-box ends, and valve-box bores, and supporting the cylinder during each set of operations by surfaces previously prepared-namely, supporting the cylinder by the valve-box bottoms in finishing the ends of the cylinder, centering the cylinder by the prepared ends in finishing the side flanges, centering the cylinder by the side flanges in finishing the ends of the valveboxes, and supporting the cylinder by the ends of the valve-boxes in boring such boxes, substantially as described, whereby the several operations are correctly performed on the cylinder Without requiring skilled labor to insure accurate adj ustment for each.

8. The improvement in the method of finishing Corliss engine cylinders, consisting in progressively treating the valve-box bottoms, cylinder ends, side flanges, valve-box ends, valve-box bores, and main-cylinder bore, and supporting the cylinder during each operation by parts previously finished, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my 'hand in presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

EMILY A. CORLISS, Admim'st'rcttrim ofthe estate of George H Gor- Zt'ss, deceased.

Witnesses:

HENRY MARSH, J r., MARIA L. CORLISS. 

